Setting it Straight: Report of call about murder suspect was false

The Sentinel is correcting an article that appeared last week detailing a claim from a local man who said he called 911 to report a man acting strangely in his neighborhood - a man who days later allegedly stabbed a woman to death.

The caller, Don Adams, told the Sentinel he had called law enforcement to report a man he believed to be Charles Anthony Edwards III loitering in his Broadway neighborhood. According to police, Adams told them Monday he never made that phone call.

The man's assertion that he had seen a man matching Edwards' description days before the May 7 fatal stabbing and called police was reported Wednesday in the online version of the Sentinel and the Thursday print edition, as part of our coverage of the killing of Shannon Collins. Edwards is charged in her slaying.

Police say the newspaper's report caused undue concern in the community over the perception that the department was not responding to complaints about threatening individuals.

The Sentinel tried unsuccessfully Wednesday to find out from Santa Cruz police if there was a record of any such call. The Sentinel was unable to reach police late Wednesday to verify the man's claims. Police said they wouldn't have been able to verify it before the story was published even if we had reached them.

The next day, dispatchers sifted through hundreds of calls and reported they could find no record of the purported call. They said Adams frequently called the dispatch line to report situations in his neighborhood.

The Sentinel tried to recontact Adams, by phone and with a personal visit, after dispatchers issued their statement and could not reach him until Monday to verify his initial claim.

Monday, police said they talked to Adams, who admitted he never made any such call. A Sentinel reporter also talked to Adams on Monday, and asked if he was standing by his initial claim. He replied, "I should have checked my facts" and referred to "my huge mistake," but said he could not say anything more about the matter "because now I'm dealing with police."

In a subsequent conversation with the Sentinel, Adams declined to add anything further about the episode.

In hindsight, we could have waited to examine dispatch records before publishing the claim. We understand that police are under intense pressure to deal with complex social problems on the streets of Santa Cruz, problems that are not easily solved in a city where transients, street crime, drug dealing and mental illness have become volatile political and legal issues.

The tragic and senseless murder of Shannon Collins has brought all of this back into the forefront of public discussion. The Sentinel is committed to providing an accurate and factual report on these problems. In retrospect, as a newspaper, we could have done a more rigorous job of determining the truth about the caller's claim.